Technology Interview

The questions I posed during my interview with these three students were:

1.     How is technology integrated into your everyday life?

2.     How long would you say you spend using social media/technology during the day? And then, during the week?

3.     Do you enjoy using technology in the classroom?

4.     What is your favorite technology or social media platform and, why?

5.     What technologies do you like that teachers use in the classroom?

6.     Would you include any new technologies or social media platforms into the classroom?

7.     Do you find technology to be distracting?

8.     Is technology a positive or negative addition to the classroom setting?

9.     Why do you use technology?

After having the opportunity to interview these three teenagers (one in 9^th grade and two in 10^th) about their technology and social media usage I was left with the following findings:

Of the three, two of the teens were males and one was a female.

All three students stated, they enjoyed technology but felt it to be more of a nuance when the teachers tried to incorporate it into the classroom. They felt this way because many times, the teachers were not adequately trained in the technology and were forced to learn on their own and at times the teens felt they were more well versed than the teacher was in that particular technology.

All three felt that the integration of technology into the classroom could be both a positive and negative. Each commented on the negative aspect first (which I found interesting) they felt as though many students were more distracted when teachers asked them to use their cell phones, ipads, or computers during class. They mentioned the positive side to technology usage was that not all students learn the same way and that by using technology it allowed those students who might have struggled to become successful within the classroom setting.

All the students said they spent on average, 4-6 hours on social media/technology/video games per day and, a whopping 30-43 hours a week. Surprisingly enough, I find this number to be slightly low and it might be because they are not including the time they are in school where technologies such as the projector, apple t.v. or mimio have become so commonplace.

After conducting this interview, I found that the amount of technology used on a daily basis may infact vary depending on the area in which the school district resides. Many students who live in rural or urban areas may not be able to afford internet access / the area in which they live might not allow them to gain internet access (wifi). It might be interesting to conduct this study with students across several grade levels and see how the results of technology integration would vary. I wonder if students at younger grades would say they enjoyed the integration of apps and games into the class because it makes the class more engaging.